Inept Oil Companies and the Politicians Who Apologize to Them (Daily Show Video)

Plenty of people did a genuine double take after hearing Representative Joe Barton (R-Texas) apologize to BP after Obama arranged for the oil company to create a $20 billion fund to pay for the damage it's caused. But that was far from the only news of the now-infamous congressional testimony of BP CEO Tony Hayward. tThere was also the oblivious testimonies from other top oil company execs, evasive answers from Hayward himself, and a grab bag of other hypocrisies and general ridiculousness. Good thing we have Jon Stewart to chronicle them all.

Okay, I know I've been posting a lot of Daily Show vids lately, but, well, they're all so good. And hey, it's Friday. Obviously, the man's got plenty to work with here, but as you can see, he does a commendably thorough job of skewering just about everything work skewering.

John Laumer already mentioned Rep. Barton's ludicrous apology to BP, but I don't think his comments can be emphasized enough. And certain politicians have actually rushed to defend those comments. They claim that this $20 escrow fund is a "shakedown" of a private corporation just going about its business in the United States. It is in reality, of course, an effort to ensure that a company -- one that happen to soil much of the Gulf of Mexico and ruin many people's livelihoods while going about its business -- is held accountable for the massive destruction it has wrought.

Are these politicians really so beholden to oil interests that they feel the need to apologize when they are held responsible for devastating the economy and the environment?